Zilch > Rules

How to play the fine game of zilch.

Rules of Zilch

1. Roll the dice

You start your turn by rolling all six dice.

2. Scoring dice? Take some points

If you rolled some scoring dice then you need to take some of those points before you can roll again. To see what scoring dice are, read the scoring guide.

3. No scoring dice? You zilched.

This means that all the points you took so far are wiped out. You bank no points and it's the end of your turn. If this is your third zilch in a row then you lose 500 points.

4. Scored 300 or more? Bank the points.

Once you have taken at least 300 points you can choose to bank them or keep on rolling the dice. If you bank the points then they are added to your score and your turn is over. If you decide to carry on rolling (see rule 5) then you could roll more scoring dice (see rule 2) but you could zilch out (see rule 3).

5. Re-roll the remaining dice

You can re-roll any dice that you didn't score with. Once you have scored points from all six dice you get a free roll!

Scoring Guide

Dice can only be used in one scoring combination. For example if you rolled the following dice:

Ones and Fives

1 = 100 points each

5 = 50 points each

Three of a kind

1 1 1 = 1000 points

2 2 2 = 200 points

3 3 3 = 300 points

4 4 4 = 400 points

5 5 5 = 500 points

6 6 6 = 600 points

Four or more of a kind

For each extra dice over three that you roll the score is doubled. If you rolled four two's then the score doubles to 400 points. If you rolled five two's the score is doubled again to 800 points, and so on. For example:

3 3 3 = 300 points

3 3 3 3 = 600 points

3 3 3 3 3 = 1200 points

3 3 3 3 3 3 = 2400 points

Special rolls

1 2 3 4 5 6 = One to six, one of each (any order), 1500 points, free roll

1 1 4 4 3 3 = Any three pairs (example), 1500 points, free roll

2 3 3 4 6 6 = No scoring dice (example), 500 points, free roll